A brief review of last night’s uneventful Fight Night:

Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schaefer (205 lbs) 

The night began with a matchup of opposing styles, as Eric ‘Red’ Schaefer desperately tried to take down Houston Alexander for the first half of the first round, while getting battered by knees and uppercuts from within Alexander’s clinch.  Once Schaefer finally got the fight to the ground, Alexander had no defense for Eric’s grappling, as Schaefer mounted Houston and applied an arm triangle choke. Alexander tapped out with only seconds remaining in the round.

Fight grade: 3.5/5 

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UFC 88 ‘Breakthrough’ – the first UFC event in Atlanta – was headlined by a lightheavyweight bout between the former champion Chuck Liddell and the Ultimate Fighter Season 2 winner Rashad Evans.  The winner of this bout was virtually guaranteed the first shot at UFC’s new LHW champion, Forrest Griffin.  The other major bouts on this card were Rich Franklin’s debut at 205 lbs against Matt Hamill, and Dan Henderson attempting to score his first UFC win in over a decade against the Brazilian submission specialist Rousimar Palhares.

The first televised match of the night was supposed to be a welterweight bout between Karo Parisyan and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, however Parisyan pulled out of the fight with a back injury the day of the weight-ins, and so another 170 lbs bout was moved up to lead the televised card:

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UFC 87 ‘Seek and Destroy’ was the organization’s debut event in Minneapolis, Minn. and featured the showdown for the welterweight title between champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Jon Fitch.  The undercard was highlighted by Brock Lesnar making his second UFC appearance against the veteran Heath Herring, as well as a much anticipated lightweight matchup  between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta.

Jason MacDonald vs Demian Maia (185 lbs)

In the first round, MacDonald quickly gets a takedown then gets caught in Maia’s triangle.  He escapes and gets Maia’s back, attempts a rear naked choke but Maia is able to escape as well.  MacDonald works ground and pound from the top; towards the end of the round Maia gets MacDonald’s back and threatens an RNC of his own. 

MacDonald does enough to win the first round, but the next two is all Maia as he gets takedown early in both rounds and works MacDonald on the ground, mounting him and constantly threatening submissions.  MacDonald survives until the middle of the third round, when he finally gets caught in an RNC he can’t escape and is forced to tap.

The aftermath: MacDonald put up a good fight and will likely remain in the lower half of UFC’s middleweight division.  Maia shows a great display of grappling against a very game opponent, and is only a fight or two away from a title shot should he keep winning.

Fight grade: 4/5

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Back at the ‘The Joint’ in Vegas, WEC 35 brought us another championship triple-header: a rematch between Brian Stann and Steve Cantwell for the lightheavyweight title, a welterweight title bout between Carlos Condit and Hiromitsu Miura, and a lightweight championship match between Jamie Varner and Marcus Hicks.  Here is how it went down:

Damacio Page vs. Brian Bowles (135 lbs bout)

The first televised bout of the night started out at a hectic pace, with Page slipping after throwing a high kick and ending up on his back with Bowles in his guard.  Bowles attempts a guillotine; Page escapes and gains the top position.  Page stands up and they go back to trading on the feet; Bowles attempts a takedown but Page sprawls.  Page goes for a takedown of his own and is caught in a standing guillotine.  He looks like he is trying to slam his way out of the hold, but his arms are trapped and Page is forced to tap out as Bowles pulls him down to the canvas. 

Bowles improves his career record to 6-0 and positions himself as one of the top contenders for the 135 lbs title (currently held by Miguel Torres.)

Fight grade: 4/5

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After their cluster-bomb of a CBS debut, Elite XC returned to network television, loaded with two title matchups:  a middleweight rematch between the reigning champion Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott Smith, and a welterweight bout between Jake Shields and Nick Thompson to crown the organization’s first 170 lbs title holder.  The third title match – heavyweight showdown between Antonio Silva and Justin Eilers – was left off the CBS card and instead headlined the preliminary card broadcast on Showtime.

Shayna Bazsler vs. Christiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos (140 lbs women’s bout)

In the first round, Bazsler aggressively goes for takedowns and submissions, getting a near heel hook at one point, but Santos escapes and batters Shayna with punches and knees.  In the second 3-minute round, Santos completely takes over the fight, landing strike after strike from clinch until Bazsler collapses.  Santos jumps on the top of the cage to celebrate, even though referee Steve Mazagatti did not stop the fight!  A few seconds of confusion ensue; Bazsler gets back to her feet and Mazagatti orders the fighters to continue.  Santos finishes what she started, knocking out the wobbly Bazsler with only seconds left in the round.

Fight grade: 4/5

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After the UFC lightweight title was on hold for most of the year due to the champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and the top contender Forrest Griffin coaching opposite each other on the seventh season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, the two finally met in the Octagon at UFC 86. With all the hype on the main event, the rest of the card looked somewhat lackluster in comparison, with Cote-Almeida being the only undercard bout with immediate title implications.

Tyson Griffin vs Marcus Aurelio (155 lbs)

Griffin dominated Aurelio in standup, and avoided danger on the ground, through the entire fight. Aurelio was not able to find an answer for Griffin’s striking, never achieved dominant position, and while he threatened numerous submissions from his always-dangerous guard, none of them came close. Griffin won every round on every judge’s scorecard for a 30-27 unanimous decision.

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Seven seasons old, and still going strong, The Ultimate Fighter has become somewhat of a farm system for the UFC.  This season didn’t produce a very high yield:  of the 32 competitors initially appearing on the cast, only seven were scheduled for a bout in the live finale. (One of those scheduled bouts, Tim Credeur vs Cale Yarborough, did not happen as Credeur was banned from competition by Nevada State Athletic Committee due to taking prescription drug Adderall several days prior to the fight.)  The rest of the card was mostly filled with UFC veterans, many of whom were in a must-win situation.

Dante Rivera vs Matthew Riddle (185 lbs)

TUF back-story: A friendly rivalry between a veteran Rivera and a rookie Riddle culminated with Rivera claiming he will retire should he lose this fight, and Riddle promising to have a retirement plaque ready to present to Dante after the bout.

The fight itself turns out to be pretty boring, with most of the bout taking place clinched against the fence.  Riddle gets a takedown towards the end of every round, and achieves mount on more than one occasion.  Ending each round in dominant position is enough to give Riddle the bout, 29-28 on one judge’s scorecard and 30-27 on the other two.  I don’t understand the UFC’s reasoning behind starting out the televised broadcast with this bout.

The aftermath:  Cooler heads prevail, and the retirement plaque never rears its ugly head.  Nevertheless, Rivera is not a UFC caliber fighter.  Riddle is very raw and green but shows potential.

Fight grade: 2/5

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Two weeks after their abysmal CBS debut, Elite XC returned with another card – this one broadcast on Showtime.  The event featured the first defense of the Elite XC’s newly minted 160 lbs title, with champion KJ Noons taking on the challenger Yves Edwards.  Other UFC and Pride FC veterans making an appearance on this card were Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, Nick Diaz, and Ron Waterman.  The commentary was provided by Mauro Ranallo and Stephen Quadros, as well as former pro-wrestler Bill Goldberg.

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UFC 85 saw a return of Ultimate Fighting Championship to London, England. The event was officially titled ‘Bedlam’, but often referred to as ‘Cursed’ due to all the injuries and mishaps that caused the lineup to change again and again. ‘Bedlam’ was originally scheduled to be headlined by Chuck Liddell taking on Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in a lightheavyweight bout, but first Rua and then Liddell were forced to withdraw from the card: Rua re-aggravated his knee injury and Liddell tore his hamstring in training. Eventually, the UFC settled on a welterweight main event of Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves.

Chris Leben was also scheduled to appear on this card, taking on Michael Bisping, but ran into some legal problems that forced him to withdraw and be replaced by the Canadian fighter Jason Day. With all the last-minute lineup changes, no title bouts or huge matchups, and only two weeks after the spectacular UFC 84, this event was pretty much an afterthought and carried fairly low expectations. Here’s how it went down:

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Back by popular demand!

There are quite a few tough calls to make this week.  FightMatrix was not created to be a prediction-based system, but its accuracy at the elite level is great, so it should be interesting to see how it fares in match-ups where both fighters are highly ranked.  Although, in Bisping/Day and Swick/Davis, we have two fighters who are still getting accustomed to their new divisions.  For entertainment purposes only, I have colored the betting favorites in GREEN where odds are available.  The system’s calls are on the left.

Welterweight
[#4] Thiago Alves vs. [#6] Matt Hughes

Middleweight
[#22] Jason Day vs. [#31] Michael Bisping

Welterweight
[#15] Mike Swick vs. [#17] Marcus Davis

Heavyweight
[#4] Fabricio Werdum vs. [#20] Brandon Vera

Middleweight
[#9] Nathan Marquardt vs. [#25] Thales Leites

Middleweight
[NR] Martin Kampmann vs. [#57] Jorge Rivera

Lightweight
[#47] Thiago Tavares vs. [#66] Matt Wiman

Light Heavyweight
[#19] Jason Lambert vs. [#165] Luis Cane

Welterweight
[#38] Roan Carneiro vs. [#113] Kevin Burns

Welterweight
[#55] Jess Liaudin vs. [#159] Paul Taylor

Heavyweight
[#48] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#56] Antoni Hardonk

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

The past weekend was a important one for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in the United States.  On Saturday, the fledgling Elite XC made history with their CBS debut: the first MMA event broadcast live on a major US television network.  And on Sunday, Zuffa-owned WEC held what was their most heavily hyped card to date, with 145-lbs champion Urijah Faber defending his belt against former UFC 155-lbs title holder Jens Pulver, and Miguel Torres defending his 135-lbs title against Yoshiro Maeda.

 While both events had several exciting, action-packed bouts, the Elite XC broadcast suffered from one huge problem:  all of the televised fights were stopped by either the referee, or the ringside doctor; and the stoppages ranged from mildly questionable to completely mind-boggling.  Fights need to be decided by fighters, not the New Jersey Athletic Comission officials!  That said, here’s how it all went down:

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Headlined by the long-awaited and much hyped lightweight title bout between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk, UFC 84 ‘Ill Will’ was the most anticipated MMA event of the year, to date.  Other than the main event, this card was all about the UFC’s elite 205-lbs division, with five lightheavyweight matchups that all made the televised broadcast.  Here is how it went down:

Thiago Silva vs Antonio Mendes

Mendes starts out aggressive, and quickly knocks Silva down with a partially blocked high kick.  Silva pops back up and is knocked down again – this time with a body kick.  Thiago scrambles up again, Mendes attempts a throw from clinch but lands on the bottom.  Thiago quickly passes Antonio’s guard and pounds away from mount; Mendes is unable to escape and the bout is stopped.

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The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event held in Canada, UFC 83 was headlined by the long-awaited rematch between the current welterweight champion Matt Serra and the interim champion Georges St. Pierre.  The card also featured six middleweight bouts (though only three of them were televised), and two Ultimate Fighter tournament winners making a debut at a new weight class: Mac Danzig at 155 lbs, and Michael Bisping at 185.

Mark Bocek vs Mac Danzig

Bocek surprised Danzig in the first round, getting a takedown and working from Danzig’s guard and half-guard from most of the round.  Danzig reversed position towards the end, but it was not enough to win the round. 

Danzig dropped Bocek with a knee to the chin early in the second.  Danzig dominated the round both on the ground and standing, damaging Bocek with elbows and punches and taking his back at one point. 

Bocek looked tired and had many small cuts on his face as the third round began.  Danzig continued his assault and opened up a gashing cut over Bocek’s left eye.  Referee Yves Lavigne stopped the action to check the cut, but allowed the bout to continue.  Danzig got a takedown, mounted and took Bocek’s back, forcing a tapout with a rear naked choke.

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UFC Fight Night 13 was the lead-in for the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show.  The card featured twelve bouts (seven of them at 155 lbs).  What was originally scheduled to be a two-hour broadcast was expanded to three hours after numerous online fan petitions; ultimately, seven out of twelve fights were televised.

James Irvin vs. Houston Alexander

The showdown between light-heavyweight strikers was over all too quickly as Irvin landed a superman punch early on that sent Houston to the canvas.  Irvin followed up with three more punches to his downed opponent as the referee Steve Mazzagatti stepped in to stop the bout at just 8 seconds into the first round.  Alexander vehemently protested the stoppage.

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For the past several WEC events, the viewers have been spoiled with multiple title defenses on each card. WEC 33 “Back to Vegas” was also scheduled to have two titles on the line. This was not meant to be, as the WEC Middleweight champion Paulo Filho is currently undergoing treatment for depression and substance abuse, and had to pull out of his scheduled rematch with Chael Sonnen, leaving this card with only the WEC Light Heavyweight title up for grabs.

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